King

This compendium game, a close relative of Barbu, Kierki and Trex, is played in various parts of the world. Versions of it, all slightly different, are played in Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Turkey, Colombia and Brazil. In all these places it is known by the English name King as well as by a variety of local names. This leads people to believe that the game comes from England, but it never appears in English language card game books and I know of no evidence that it has ever been played in any English speaking countries. It is quite mysterious why this game should bear an English name, as well as how it has come to be popular in such widely separated parts of the world.

Rules of various versions of King will be explained and compared on this page eventually. So far we have:

• Rules of Turkish King (Rıfkı), written by Wei-Hwa Huang.
• Kingen, the Flemish version of the game.

You can download a freeware King program from Thanos Card Games.